[Dakar the Fourth]

Doh, that's my fault, I forgot to double-check your everyone's availability.

Could everyone do a back-to-back Wednesday and Thursday at 10.30?

---

I started screwing around with images too. Supersized:

[::maroma::]

I can make those nights.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by ::maroma:: 

2. We haven't discussed it, but seems like we both like to drive. Maybe we will alternate from game to game, unless that isn't allowed. But I'm perfectly willing to be the shooter. Its all fun to me.

YOu can alternate drivers between GPs. In fact, as far as I'm concernd, during the Qualifying Round you can change drivers to figure out who'd be best. In the Main Race, that's when it's in cement.

Originally Posted by ::maroma:: 

3. If I may suggest a color without my consulting my partner, how about Green. Name might be something like The Lean Mean Green Bean Team? Cuz I kinda like green beans. And all that stuff rhymes. Except for "The", but lets not get petty. (That almost rhymed too)

Of course I am very much open to a different color and/or team name. I really haven't given it enough thought to be married to the above sorry excuse for an answer.

Pick something shorter. Like two words, max. Team Green Something somethings.

I think the other colors available on Rocket Race are red and shitstain brown.

[Stogieman]

How about team Jolly Green Giants?

[Dakar the Fourth]

Team Green Gnus

[klb5090]

wednesday and thursday should be good for me if i can fix the tradegy of the day.
I played a few games of halo earlier online and all is well...until i decided to go out for a while and when i return i place my disc in the drive and the little tray on the dashboard screens shows "play dvd" so i click it and it says "place a disc in the drive to play a game or watch a movie"...
so i turn off the console and turn it back on only to get the same result... so as of now i'm halo-less and i have no idea what to do.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by klb5090 

wednesday and thursday should be good for me if i can fix the tradegy of the day.
I play a few games of halo earlier online all is well...until i decided to go out for a while and when i return i place my disc in the drive and the little tray on the dashboard screens shows "play dvd" so i click it and it says "place a disc in the drive to play a game or watch a movie"...
so i turn off the console and turn it back on only to get the same result... so as of now i'm halo-less and i have no idea what to do.

That happened to me once. Try cleaning off the disc (carefully, of course) and try it again. The Xbox 360 seems to be more sensitive to minor disc issues than pretty much any other system I've owned.

Oh, and Wednesday and Thursday are both good for me.

[sek929]

Wed and Thurs are good for me too.

[klb5090]

yea i tried all the cleaning procedures with no avail. After looking closely at the disc there seems to be a small section close to the middle that looks like it 'bled' a dark color underneath the top layer...weird. I'm going to gamestop tomorrow to see if i can get a replacement disc...probably not gonna happen

[klb5090]

oh a side note IF i can get a new disc for wed/thurs my driver (apsolid) is away this week for spring break so i'll be using a rent-a-driver for the week (i'm unsure who it will be as of now)

[TravisReynolds]

lol be lucky to make it 2 page? you got like 25 pages bro

[klb5090]

sek, some awesome grifball games earlier.... Insane...
not to mention my first Killtactular , Killtrocity , and Killmanjaro...

[sek929]

Grifball is just a bit outrageous, and I love it!

Edit: I was gonna make a cool grifball-o-rama but apparently the upload pic feature of bungie.net isn't working right now....rats.

[klb5090]

BTW: after a successful disc exchange at gamestop i am able to play halo again (obviously by the games i played earlier with sek)

If anyone has the new maps make sure to get in some grifball before its over its a crazy time and i'll be downloading the gamevariant so we can try to give it a whirl once the maps are free.

Only Grifball can produce such ridiculous medal lists....



Edit: Sek i think your right we need a fatty-o-rama when the image system works again.

[Alex601]

Haha killamenjaro that game was crazy.

[Dakar the Fourth]

::maroma:: man, you need to stop by Halo around 11 pm EST.

Sek, kb, and I banged out our bracket and it was a blast that left us thirsting for more.

[klb5090]

true that...i could go for a tall glass of BR with a side of plasma grenade

[sek929]

GAH! One shot from the grif-o-rama showed up and no shots that I just took from our Skill Kill game are showing up (even though the uploading screen went smoothly)

PITA! I want to make panoramas dammit!

[Dakar the Fourth]

Bungie doesn't even have our custom games listed yet.

[sek929]

I may be bit on the side of impatient, but Bungie.net usually updates AT MOST a minute after a game or pic is played.

Usually I can refresh Bungie.net and see my new screens right after they've been uploaded.

[Dakar the Fourth]

The pic problems they had when I first got the game have been cropping back up lately. Why, I don't know.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Pics of the Day

It seems whenever I go into Social Slayer for a warm-up game, I inevitably get Shotty Snipers or Team Snipers -- not a great gametype when you're cold. This game, I decided to wait to try and snipe some pricks out of the sky before I made my move.


First, however, some jackass on my team made the death jump, and was met with fire from a very organized team.


Success! A one attempt headshot snipe by your truly. It would be in the replay that I notice that this guy put a bullet near my feet. That's a little scary.


A closer look at the headshot I put into the guy. That's right, that's a headshot. Next time you hear me crying about losing shotgun battles thanks to my connection, think of this picture.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Now completed
sek, kb, and I were on doing some RBT yesterday when I realized we still had the test tourney brackets to bang out. Here are the results to that seized opportunity.

Beta Bracket
sek929, klb5090, Dakar

Game 1 - License to Kill @ Epitaph v2

The Breakdown
In the pregame lobby, kb expressed his reservation about the lack of radar, while I secretly hoped I picked up the pace compared to my earlier play during the day. Once inside the game began as anticipated -- sek out to an early lead, myself trailing, and Kevin lagging behind in 3rd. Things were fairly even for myself as whatever battles I lost out to my shots not registering on host were made up for when I whored out the invisibility. An (unknown at the time) phone call from kb's girl boosted his performance when he pulled even and passed me on the heels of mugging me about 5 straight times. Near the end we traded places a few times before ultimately tying as time ran out (a little early, I might add).

Notable stats: Let's just say kb milked the cow here. Of his 14 kills, a staggering 11 were your truly. Meanwhile, sek had a very even 8/9 kills on us, and a respectable 8/6 split was submitted by me.

Results: 1st sek929 (17) 2nd (Tie) Kevin Bogues/Dakar (14)

Game 2 - Survivor @ Isolation

The Breakdown
I knew when I was setting up the map options that Isolation wasn't the best venue for Survivor, but I had forgotten how bad. I managed to grab the shotty to start, but given Iso's wide open nature, I was at a loss as what I should do. Three deaths later, I decicded to camp one of the bases, and an unsuspecting kb walked by. A grenade and a melee later, I registered my second kill.

A later rush for the Ghost became ill advised as the Ghost was not there (fairly subbed out since it's ability to dominate a three-for-all would be horrible) and I died to Fatty. He would grab the "rocks" and get into an unseen battle with Kevin, who would somehow commit suicide later. Shortly after my last life expired, Kevin was eliminated and sek brought home the Survivor title with only one death.

Notable stats: None. I hate Isolation.

Results: 1st sek929 2nd Kevin Bogues 3rd Dakar

Game 3 - Skill Kill @ Guardian v2

The Breakdown
This was by far the most lively game of the night. Skill Kill introduces some interesting aspects into slayer that were well received. First, every death removes points from your total. Second, the current leader will always have a waypoint over his head, making camping impossible, as well as giving everyone the opportunity to remove points from his total if they so desire.

Kevin kicked off by sticking everything in sight, padding all his kill points. As I roamed around the map, I quickly determiend my best chance was to steal kills -- bombing and spraying sek and kb in every battle they entered against each other. This strategy earned me the first double-kill of the game (I swear I had a second, but the stats say otherwise). Kevin broke out to an early lead, but sek and I quickly learned that leads were very slippery things. By the middle Kevin and sek were trading the lead rapidly, and I used the waypoint to surprise many an unsuspecting leader.

Near the end the score was 64/62/62 and it was a deadheat for the goal of 75 points. I briefly touched the lead (aided by sek's proficiency at committing suicide, a grave error that is heavily penalized in the score), but sek managed to rise to the top at 72 points. Kevin and I realized he had to be stopped. Spotting the waypoint, I noticed kb on my tail (literally, and scorewise), so I rushed sek a little wildly, and ended up coming up short -- I threw a melee too late. sek wins.

Notable stats: The final kill gave sek a killing spree (the only of the game) and an added one point bonus. Kill death ratios in the game were very close, +2/-2/-2. sek had the most kills and deaths, and the least assists. I had the least kills and deaths and the most assists.

Results: 1st sek929 (79) 2nd Dakar (62) 3rd Kevin Bogues (60)

Points earned
sek929 15 (5 x3)
Dakar 6 (2 (tie), 1, 3)
Kevin Bogues 6 (2 (tie), 3, 1)

[sek929]

Hey Dakar, at least my man-cannon headshots actually hit people in the head!

As promised, Grif-o-Rama


A cool shot of Dakar, myself (in the background) and a crouching Bogues.


From the same Skill Kill game, Bogues and I sticky each other while Dakar waits in the bushes below.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by sek929 

Hey Dakar, at least my man-cannon headshots actually hit people in the head!

Hey, it counted as a headshot, so that's all that matters, right?

Originally Posted by sek929 

As promised, Grif-o-Rama

Nice shot.

Originally Posted by sek929 

From the same Skill Kill game, Bogues and I sticky each other while Dakar waits in the bushes below.

I about peed myself from all the horrible sounds occurring above me. I don't know which one you bailed me out, but thanks.

-----

Unless we hear from Kevin saying he has a replacement for his driver, apsolid, by the end of the workday tomorrow, Our NN GP event will be rescheduled to next week, Wed/Thurs.

Oh, I'm working on some supercool stuff relating to the event. I have half a mind to tease you people with a sampling.

-----

Of note:

Originally Posted by bungie.net

We’re not announcing a specific date just yet, hints, allegations and things left unsaid are still hanging in the air like the echo of a bad chorus from a Collective Soul song, but the Legendary Map Pack, which includes the recently-discussed Ghost Town will be coming to Xbox Live Marketplace soon.

While I doubt their version of soon and mine jive, I figure this still puts them directly on my timeline.

Also:

Originally Posted by bungie.net

Additionally, once the Heroic Map Pack becomes free, we’ve decided that in order to increase the frequency of appearance for these maps in regular matchmaking – there’s no way to “force” all players to download the maps, but we can limit access to hoppers based on content detected on your Xbox – players will be required to have the Heroic DLC maps in order to access the following announced playlists: Ranked BTB, Social BTB, Team Slayer and Rocket Race.

[sek929]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

I about peed myself from all the horrible sounds occurring above me. I don't know which one you bailed me out, but thanks.

From watching the film I saw KB about to kill you so you ran to the bushes to hide. Then KB followed you to find Fatty itching to stick him. You regained your shields in the bushes while we lit up the night sky with our corpses.

(and I somehow got a suicide from that...)

BTW, nice Frisky Dingo sig.

[klb5090]

awesome shots from last night, that grif-o-rama is perfect (right before the destruction begins) also that picture of us sticking each other while dakar hides in the bush below is priceless.

I downloaded the grifball so we can hook that up as a NN game once the maps are free but i think me and sek with have the advantage because we played many a grif yesterday.
---------------------
First i'm going to apologize but it looks like i'm without a partner for wed/thurs GP, if you guys want you can play it without my group this week or wait till next and i will have apsolid back (as dakar can attest to i need a driver because my mongoose skills are horrid).
----------------------
as one last note i think it is required we get some more of the brackets done, yesterdays was barrels of fun

[klb5090]

BTW i noticed the "rocks" comment in the post game review for survivor, haha.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by sek929 

From watching the film I saw KB about to kill you so you ran to the bushes to hide. Then KB followed you to find Fatty itching to stick him. You regained your shields in the bushes while we lit up the night sky with our corpses.

I was pretty sure I was avoiding KB. I was hiding, so much as moving to a position that was more tactically viable.

Originally Posted by sek929 

BTW, nice Frisky Dingo sig.

Ka-kow!

Originally Posted by klb5090 

First i'm going to apologize but it looks like i'm without a partner for wed/thurs GP, if you guys want you can play it without my group this week or wait till next and i will have apsolid back (as dakar can attest to i need a driver because my mongoose skills are horrid).

It's no problem, we'll just force maroma to do the brackets with us this week.

Or we could give you chuckit as a driver allow maroma to bring on decog and continue as scheduled, thereby pissing everyone off so much that they spend each and every rocket race incessantly rocketing Team Purple until time runs out.

On second though, let's go with plan a.

Originally Posted by klb5090 

BTW i noticed the "rocks" comment in the post game review for survivor, haha.

I have no idea what you could possibly be referring to.

----

Here's your 'taste'.

[sek929]

Looks monday-liscious!

[::maroma::]

Wow, that dude in the preview pic is friggin SEXAY! SNAP!

I'm down for some bracket busting this week. I should be available every evening this week, as per my usual schedule. Decog will be out of town on Thursday and Friday so he's out of the picture for those days.

So let me know what you need me for and I'll do my best to show up. Meanwhile I'll be trying to get my last few achievements knocked out. I was so damn close to getting my Steppin' Razor out of the way this weekend on a sword match. Missed a kill by about 2 seconds. Grrrrr!

[sek929]

Turn-ons: Battle Rifle, female Spartans, Guass Cannon
Turn-offs: Sniping, Recon Armor, lag

[Stogieman]

Funny how Tea Bagging wasn't listed as a Turn Off.

[sek929]

That's ::maroma:: for ya!

[::maroma::]

On a different note, I'm listening to the Bungie podcast right now for the first time. They have one of the networking programmers on right now talking about lag and challenges with programming for that sort of thing. This dude is also the inspiration for that plaque on Last Resort (by the sniper rifle area that isn't near the beach) that says "Camp Froman". Pretty neat... if you're as bored as I am at work.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by ::maroma:: 

So let me know what you need me for and I'll do my best to show up. Meanwhile I'll be trying to get my last few achievements knocked out. I was so damn close to getting my Steppin' Razor out of the way this weekend on a sword match. Missed a kill by about 2 seconds. Grrrrr!

We'll need sek and/or kb also on, so keep your eyes peeled.

Originally Posted by sek929 

Turn-ons: Battle Rifle, female Spartans, Guass Cannon
Turn-offs: Sniping, Recon Armor, lag

I'm disturbed.

Originally Posted by Stogieman 

Funny how Tea Bagging wasn't listed as a Turn Off.

I love it. I post one pic and all hell breaks loose.

Originally Posted by sek929 

That's ::maroma:: for ya!

No comment.

Originally Posted by ::maroma:: 

On a different note, I'm listening to the Bungie podcast right now for the first time. They have one of the networking programmers on right now talking about lag and challenges with programming for that sort of thing. This dude is also the inspiration for that plaque on Last Resort (by the sniper rifle area that isn't near the beach) that says "Camp Froman". Pretty neat... if you're as bored as I am at work.

Believe it or not, I somehow never considered downloading their broadcast. I figured it's be more boring and uninformative than their Weekly Updates.

[klb5090]

the "taste" just made my controller rumble (if you know what i'm saying) haha

and its 11pm wheres everyone at, lets bang out a bracket or two or three.

Edit: as i say that everyone gets on and a informal meet occurs, awesome

[sek929]

Looks like I missed the party...

I did bowl a 184 tonight (2nd highest)

[klb5090]

great games tonight guys, that bracket was a good time (just like the last one), not to mention the games of ninja ball/fiesta/rocket race... one hell of a makeshift NN meetup

[::maroma::]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Believe it or not, I somehow never considered downloading their broadcast. I figured it's be more boring and uninformative than their Weekly Updates.

This was the first one I listened to, and it was actually pretty interesting. They talked about how that Froman dude got busted for hacking into his college's student database (with all of their SS#'s and whatnot), got off on a misdemeanor and Bungie hired him anyways. Here's the link to it if anyone wants to subscribe in iTunes.

And I agree that was good times tonight. I sucked hard most of the night, but still had a blast. Gonna have to take some good shots of some of those matches tomorrow.

[sek929]

I learned that I like Fiesta, a lot

[Dakar the Fourth]

Now Completed

Delta Bracket
klb5090, ::maroma::, Dakar

Game 1 - Crazy King @ Construct

The Breakdown
As luck would have it, my second and last warm-up game prior to this was a game of Crazy King on the Pit. Less encouraging, I came in last (against a bunch of captains and lower), so I had my reservations about the game. These reservations turned out to be ill-founded, as I got out to an early lead which I did not let go of. After the initial pattern was set (Kevin kills me, maroma kills Kevin, I kill maroma) we almost never deviated -- the only real exception coming late in the game where I made a heroic stand in the basement where I must have killed my dropping-in opponents 3-4 times straight.

This was a custom King set-up. Maroma fell early victim to one of the more unique placements, a circle at one of the edges, and he backed into his doom while dueling Kevin. Later, while exchanging cross level BRs on my other unique zone, maroma got ambushed by Kevin from the side. All in all, I thought the map was a success.

Notable stats: I didn't bring home a single double kill. K/D was pretty even at 0/-1/-1, and if you remove suicides, was an amazing 0/0/0.

Results: 1st Dakar (100) 2nd Kevin Bogues (91) 3rd ::maroma:: (83)

Game 2 - Fiesta @ Epitaph

The Breakdown
This was the gametype that everyone was, fairly or unfairly, dreading. I suppose uncertainty builds dread (see: no radar), but honestly, I didn't see what all the fuss was about.

The game revealed it's weaknesses pretty quickly. In addition to your spawn weapons I added random spawns at all locations, which pretty much guaranteed you were going to face a power weapon at all times. In an effort to avoid the inevitable rockets and swords I decided to snipe from a perch, but that delivered mixed results as I conserved life while retarding kill progress. Kevin, as usual, went to the cow continually and destroyed maroma 16 times, twice as many as your truly. Unsurprisingly, maroma finished last, with a shocking 8 kills.

Notable stats: Again, maroma accounted for 16 of Kevin's 24 kills. Geez.

Results: 1st Kevin Bogues (24) 2nd Dakar (16) 3rd maroma (8)

Game 3 - Survivor @ The Pit

The Breakdown
Winding the night down was a game of Survivor on the Pit. Survivor is as much a game of pure killing skill as it is strategy. After an encounter with Kevin sent me spawning on the second floor, I decided to play a little more conservative whilst taunting maroma as camping in the sword room. As luck would have it a tower encounter between maroma and Kevin then unfolded right in front of me, so I did my best to speed the process along, sending Kevin on his way and getting damn near doing the same to maroma.

Incensed, Kevin tried to bomb my elevated location, but to no avail. maroma, recovering nearby, engaged Kevin unsucessfully. I decided it was time I left my shltered surroundings and dropped down in front of a surprised Kevin who was quickly finished off with one (somewhat lucky) BR to the face. It seems his battle with maroma had taken it's toll.

The last of Kevin's lives expired, it was down to maroma myself (Kevin tracking our progress from the nether world). I planted myself near Bogues' body with a fresh shotgun and my prey soon passed. Two shots in the back finished him off. I then fled the scene of the crime and managed to track maroma down for the game winning kill.

Notable stats: I had two lives left when I won. maroma had one guardian kill. This was maroma's first finish above 3rd. This finish decisively ended a points tug-of-war between Kevin and I.

Results: 1st Dakar 2nd maroma 3rd Kevin Bogues

Bracket Points Earned
Dakar 13 (5x2, 3)
Kevin Bogues 9 (5, 3, 1)
maroma 5 (3, 1x2)

Test Tourney Points Earned
Dakar 19 (2/3 Brackets completed)
sek 15 (1/3 Brackets completed)
Kevin Bogues 15 (2/3 Brackets completed)
maroma 5 (1/3 Brackets completed)

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by klb5090 

great games tonight guys, that bracket was a good time (just like the last one), not to mention the games of ninja ball/fiesta/rocket race... one hell of a makeshift NN meetup

I can't wait to take pictures of my Ninjaball landing on Guardian. If only I hadn't choked on the deployment of the bubble shield (though there's a chance it still may not have worked).

I also was getting a kick out of teasing all of you with bizarre challenges with the payoff of a sig. Lots of free kills on LTK with you fools trying to do Mowdowns.

As proud as I am of my Rocket Race win wile driving solo, I get the feeling you people took it pretty easy on me.

Highlight of the night: Taking a strong lead in Skill Kill with < 15 seconds to go, and teabagging Kevin's corspse until the end -- with stogie commenting he could see the waypoint bobbing up and down the entire time.

Originally Posted by sek929 

I learned that I like Fiesta, a lot

Yeah, it needs to go back to the usual way, no map weapon spawns.

---

The good news is through our testing so far I've learned a few things. Changes to be found for the first official tourney:

Fiesta will be removed. What it will be replaced with is TBD.
The Pit does not work for Survivor thanks to its elevated spawn which could give an unfair advantage.
Isolation is not good for Survivor, either (Or any gametype, almost).
Skill Kill will be returning.
LTK goal score will be lowered to 25.
Time limit for all games will be raised to 15 minutes.

Sign-ups for an Official Tourney will start after the test tourney has been completed.

[klb5090]

BTW i dont think i'm qualified to do a write up but i figured i would show the timeline of Dakar's impossible ninja jump...

Ninja Ball - Guardian - The Dakar Ninja Chronicles

Dakar grabs the ball and decides to take his over the top speed to the man cannon...


Up next by some sort of amazying "skill" he lands in no mans land...


As he sits atop his perch he decides to deploy the bubble shield which would of certain saved his life but...it fails

(Notice the blue ball of the heavens coming in from the side)


As Maroma tries to BR his way i step back and throw a hail mary and get dakar by the shoelace...


We all know what happens next...

[klb5090]

A few randoms from the same match...

Dakar doing some acrobatic moves...


After leading the entire match and only a few seconds to win ::maroma:: and i team up to take Dakar out....but fail as he escapes and dies only a fraction of a second after the game ends...

[::maroma::]

Originally Posted by klb5090 

(Notice the blue ball of the heavens coming in from the side)

That's what she said. (sorry, had to say it)

Great pics! That was a fun match. Damn Dakar and his slippery ways!

[Dakar the Fourth]

If I told you guys there would soon be a MacNN Medal Chest, what would you say?

[klb5090]

i would say..."you never seize to create awesome ideas so ....tell me more about this 'medal chest'..."

Edit: that was my 200th post i just realized...now i'm an actual member not a junior or regular

[sek929]

Our little Boguesy is becoming a full-fledged nerd

Sunrise, sunset...

[sek929]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

If I told you guys there would soon be a MacNN Medal Chest, what would you say?

As long as I get a medal for "Most Awesome" I am excited.

Also, KB, you should really try out that panorama program I use, it's dead-simple and I think you'd have a blast making sweet scenes.